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"Cardinal Cupich: ‘Evangelization’ doesn’t mean converting Jews to Catholicism"
lifesitenews.com
"Quoting Pope Francis, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said 'proselytism' is a 'sin' that the Catholic Church has 'not always avoided.'
Cupich said this during a speech on Catholic-Jewish relations at the North Shore Congregation Israel synagogue on January 29, 2018. The synagogue advertises on its website, 'We are interfaith. We are LGBTQ.'
Cupich discussed the Jewish and Catholic importance of maintaining 'tradition' while simultaneously criticizing the Church’s previous 'ridiculous' tradition of limiting mixed-religion marriages, invoked the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s 'consistent ethic of life' that equates intrinsic evils with societal ills, and warned against his definition of religious 'identity politics.'
He expressed support for Jewish parents passing on the Jewish faith to their children and Catholic parents passing on the Catholic faith to their children.
The cardinal discussed his initiative to 'renew the Church' and the 'new evangelization,' which he said cannot be taken to mean the dismissal of the Second Vatican Council’s ambiguities on ecumenism. He also apologized to those present for any 'distressful and hostile attitudes' or 'deception' they may have experienced from Catholics.
He said the 'renewal' of the Church can be done by 'returning to roots of traditions' but also condemned the traditional Catholic approach of converting people of other religions to Catholicism.
Discussing the 'sin' of 'proselytism,' Cupich said:
Sadly, mission efforts by Catholics and some other Christian communities have not always avoided these sins. There have been times when human and financial support have been tied to conversion. Other times, conversion was required through the force of state power or ecclesial power. Still others, and even in our day, deception is found in the presentation of Christianity to others. Often this means presenting only the positive elements of one’s religion in contrast to the weaknesses of the other. Again, we have to admit, frankly, that Catholics have not been free from such attitudes and actions.
In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II acknowledged the errors born of missionary zeal and a false sense of service to the truth. This is what he said: ‘Let us ask pardon for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distressful and hostile attitude sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions. We humbly ask forgiveness for the part which each of us has had in these evils by our own actions, thus helping to disfigure the face of the Church.’ Tonight, if any of you have experienced anything of this nature from Catholics in your own life, I too ask your forgiveness.
'Some people today worry that the new stress on evangelization by the Catholic Church means that we are abandoning our commitments made in Vatican II about ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue and religious freedom,' he continued. 'I want to be clear as possible tonight: we will not abandon these commitments, either here in Chicago or throughout the universal church. For abandoning them would mean abandoning who we are, who we claim to be.'...
Cupich also quoted documents from the U.S. bishops and high-ranking Vatican prelates that essentially tell Catholics not to try to convert Jews to Catholicism, despite Christ’s command to 'go and baptize all nations' and that he is 'the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'...
Cupich ended his appearance at North Shore Congregation Israel by answering a question about marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics. The Church used to be much stricter about letting Catholics and non-Catholics marry, but has significantly loosened that since Vatican II. However, for a Catholic to marry a non-Catholic in the Church, the couple must promise to raise their kids Catholic. Catholics are not permitted to marry non-Catholics outside of the Catholic Church.
The cardinal said he urges non-Catholic parties in mixed marriages to be 'good' Jews, Presbyterians, Muslims, or whatever other religion they might be.
There used to be a 'terrible practice of telling people they had to convert to Catholicism' to marry a Catholic, said Cupich, and this was 'ridiculous.'
'We’re glad that’s in the rear-view mirror,' he said, but future generations must be made to see it this way as well. 'If we don’t remember and tell our kids about the past, they’re going to repeat it.'
The full video of Cupich’s talk is available here."
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